Any tips on healthy diet please??

buzzb123

hi guys, i have a 4 year old little girl and am worried about her diet. She eats plent of dairy,meat and savoury products but she eats *very* little fruit and veg.

the only fruit she eats are apples and oranges . the only veg she eats are potatoes,lettuce,cucumber and carrots(only when they are raw:rolleyes:)

i know how important it is that she gets nutrition from fruit and veg but it seems impossible to get her to eat them. I think its the texture of fruit that is off putting to her and she dislikes the taste of veg.

she doesnt eat food such as pizza chips etc often and would really only be given one or two small treats a day.

im sure many parents have gone thru this so was wondering if anyone would have any helpfull advice on ways to try to get her to eat them more

any advice or tips greatly appreciated:)

littlebug

I would chop off my hand if I thought it would ensure that my 5 year old would eat all or even some of the above! :rolleyes:

So no advice from me except that to me it sounds like she has a good diet for a 4 year old. Others with children with exceptional diets may advise better

Nevyn

How is she with smoothies and juices?

buzzb123

So no advice from me except that to me it sounds like she has a good diet for a 4 year old.


really? most people that i ask what their kids eat say they eats loads of fruit etc and that makes me feel worse:o!!

i drink loads of smoothies myself but she wont as much as even taste them!!

buzzb123

So no advice from me except that to me it sounds like she has a good diet for a 4 year old.

really? most people that i ask what their kids eat say they eats loads of fruit etc and that makes me feel worse:o!!

i drink loads of smoothies myself but she wont as much as even taste them!!

RedXIV

Helping prepare food worked quite well for a 5 year old at home. He was mashing food with me one day that he wouldn't normally eat and then ate it. Althugh it could be a boy thing, reveling in the food you utterly smushed

littlebug

buzzb123 wrote: »

So no advice from me except that to me it sounds like she has a good diet for a 4 year old.


really? most people that i ask what their kids eat say they eats loads of fruit etc and that makes me feel worse:o!!

i drink loads of smoothies myself but she wont as much as even taste them!!

well my advise doesn't count as I'm at my wits end with my lad

My 8 year old on the other hand would eat all of the things you have listed and add grapes and bananas to the fruit list and peas and sweetcorn to the vegetables. She loves smoothies and has no problem trying new foods. She's picky about some things but to be honest I think she has a wide enough diet that I don't think she's missing out on anything nutritionally even if there are some things she doesn't eat.

Do you think your daughter is missing out anything on in terms of nutrition rather than specific foods?

LegacyUser

If there is one thing that really annoys me its parents that force feed there kids fruit/veg etc... I think it stems from sitting at the kitchen table with my mother pulling her hair out, spoonfeeding my 3 brother's to get them to eat!! I can't abide sitting at a table with arguements to eat this and eat that!! but there is a way...... blackmail and bribary!!! :0)

I know that parents worry that little jimmy or josie aren't getting nutriants but honestly save yourself the hassle.... Leave the child alone!!! I am not a childcare professional but i have got 2 kids aged 8 and 11 now. Both at the ages of 3/4/5 were TERRIBLE!! the youngest went through a stage of only eating wheetabix, fromage frais and banana's, nothing else!! At the time i let her away with it as she had awful trouble with her tonsils, they were very large and were constantly infected so i thought it was due to more wanting soft food than being a fussy eater. Once she got them taken out i was desparate to improve her diet. It was a nightmare and so stressful. In the end it was making it worse trying to coax her, she could see my frustration and was loving the attention of it all!!

I just gave up trying to convince her to eat other foods. I just kept dishing up the family dinner's and did not make a fuss of what she DIDNT eat. We just used to talk amongest ourselves of the benefits of eating these foods and i would suggest she taste it but it was her choice. If she tried it, i would say "good for you pet" and ask did she like it, often she would say no!! I used to tell her that sometimes it takes a while for your body to like something and one day she will taste the potato/carrott/cauliflower etc. and she will love it.

I dished up the same dinner for everyone no alternatives!!! If she said she didn't like this or that, i would tell her to eat what she did like on plate, and thats all thats on offer!! She used to tell me she was not going to eat that carrot and i would say, ok, don't but your not going to have nice skin/hair or run fast like so and so coz they ate there veg. Ice-cream or dessert was only allowed if plates were cleared or a reasonable effort to, was made. Be consistent!!!

Importantly don't make a big deal of what they DON'T eat and praise what they do. You will grind them down and they will love nothing better to tell you how great they are because they ate all their parsnip!!

Worked with my pair, they eat everything bar brussell sprouts and celery but they do...... because i hide it in their potato's!!! ;0)

we'llallhavetea_old

my little one eats apples, carrots, brocolli, potatoes and bananas the odd time! i'm not worried tbh, she's a good grubber, the only thing i have to say no to is sandwiches, she would eat them til the cows came home.

i wouldn't worry op, it sounds like she's eating well. kids can be extremely picky so you're kinda lucky in a way!

Nevyn

My kids love spag boll and I have been using it for years to get extra veg into them.
I put onions, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, corgettes, carrots, parships and eggplant in it all shredded.

angeldaisy

I do something similar to Thaedydal and the spag bol, I add extra veg into shepherds pie, pizza sauce and recently I made burgers and pureed garlic, celery, mushrooms and onions and then mixed them into the meat. My son (5) wolfed the lot, he enjoys eating broccoli and carrots but won't eat any other veg voluntarily, but I've stopped worrying about it. It was only stressing me out, and he's a fine strong healthy boy, so I guess I must be doing something right??

Wantobe

Other tips for hiding veg- soup, we would have soup once a week or thereabouts- leek and potato and vegetable soup are their favourites- when it's cooked you can whizz it up until completely smooth if they don't like the veg in it.

We make ratatouille quite often too- again if they don't like it I would whizz it up until it is a smooth texture and serve with pasta- like a pasta sauce except this one is full of veg, they could sprinkle cheese on top too if they like. Actually in one Annabel Karmel cook book I have she has a recipe for hidden veg pasta sauce- which is basically a tomato based sauce with lots of other vegetables chucked in. I usually just use our leftover ratatouille and even the leftover sauce I freeze in icecube trays and then put the cubes in freezer bags to serve other days with pasta when I don't have time to cook from scratch- often handy for lunch.

And before meals, if you have time, you could serve things like mangetout, carrot batons, asparagus- basically any veg that will go into a stick shape and serve with a dip. I find that mine are often so hungry right before dinner that I can serve part of the meal like an appetiser before hand and they eat it right up.

But I agree with the other posters- it sounds like she already has a pretty good diet!

mymo

Will she drink fruit juices?
My girl always ate pretty much anything but my friends 2 girls of the same age were and still are terrible.(rice, pasta and meat with the occasionally fruit juice is pretty much all they'll eat at 11 and 13)
Have you tried freezing fruit juices as ice lollies? This can be done with a mix of fruit and veg if you have a juicer.
Also try soups, my friend makes veggie soup(carrots, turnip, onion or leek), puts it in the blender then adds cooked potato and chicken and thickens it with a little cream or cornflour.
Will she eat pasta?
Make your own sauces with veg, roast peppers, onions, carrot and tomato, puree and stir into pasta.
The soup and pasta sauce can be made in bulk and freezes great.
I wouldn't worry too much, just let her try stuff, their tastes change as they get older too.
Just don't make a fuss or it'll get worse.

Wantobe

Mmmm, last night I served strawberries for dipping into homemade chocolate sauce. And bananas. So while it is a way of getting them to eat fruit, it's not necessarily healthy. But yummy.:o

belongtojazz

For the first 4 years or so of her life my daughter lived on weetabix mixed with yoplait strawberry yougart and the odd banana :rolleyes:
She's now 13 and will eat anything!! she's 5ft 8 and still growing so it hasn't done her any harm, I firmly believe the worst thing a parent can do is to make an issue over food. From the sounds of things your little one is doing great

silverharp

Thaedydal wrote: »

How is she with smoothies and juices?

juice is a poor way to get the goodness of fruit. Basically the fiber is seperated ot and you are left with the fructose which makes it little better the coke for the average kid

Qualitymark

She sounds as if she likes raw vegetables - maybe serve up dishes of chopped carrots, broccoli and caili pieces, etc when TV is being watched, just leave them out, and eat some yourself.

I'd be with mum's the word on de-stressing about this. She actually sounds like she has a great diet.

Tip: sprinkle some chopped parsley on salads - delicious, and higher in folic acid than almost anything.

simu

Thaedydal wrote: »

My kids love spag boll and I have been using it for years to get extra veg into them.
I put onions, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, corgettes, carrots, parships and eggplant in it all shredded.

My son won't eat anything "mixed" like sauces and smoothies so no hope of sneaking extra veg into him! When we have stir fries etc, he will only eat the meat if you rinse the sauce off under the tap. His typical dinner would be raw veg, plain meat/fish and plain potato/rice/pasta. I don't know how he stands the blandness!